Children fleeing the Iraq city of Mosul as a military offensive to retake it from the so-called Islamic State will need years of specialist support to rebuild their lives, World Vision has warned.
Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, said the organisation was preparing for the possibility that the offensive would result in the largest global humanitarian operation this year amid fears that as many as a million people could be displaced by Christmas.
He said that while the military offensive, announced late on Sunday, had been many months in the planning, “we are hearing a lot less about preparations for the humanitarian consequences of the offensive, which are likely to be terrible”. Noting that in times of emergency at least half of those affected will be children, he added: “The children of Mosul must not be sacrificed in the taking of Mosul.”
Khalil Sleiman, World Vision’s response manager for northern Iraq, said the organisation was already supporting half a million people who fled Mosul when it was first occupied in June, 2014.
“We’re now poised for another massive influx of children and families who will have been through horrific experiences most of us could never imagine,” he said. “They will arrive with nothing but the clothes on their back and will be thirsty, hungry, and need urgent medical attention.”
World Vision is calling for “humane treatment” at every stage of the process of the Mosul operation – including the screening process when boys as young as 14 may be separated from their families and has raised concerns about the lack of identification documents because followers of IS may have confiscated them, warning that separating fathers from their families for protracted periods during the screening process may also make families more vulnerable.
